Wiring patterns such as conductive circuits and electrodes used in various electronic components such as touch panels are formed by various printing methods such as flexographic printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, and gravure offset printing, depending on, for example, the line width, thickness, and production rate of the patterns. Among these various printing methods, particular attention has been directed to gravure offset printing, for example, for the formation of fine wiring patterns with line widths of several tens of micrometers.
Gravure offset printing uses a gravure plate having formed thereon grooves corresponding to the desired print pattern and a blanket having a surface formed by silicone rubber (see, for example, PTL 1). A gravure offset printing process mainly includes a doctoring step of filling the grooves on the gravure plate with a printing paste, an off step of offsetting the printing paste from the grooves to the surface of the blanket, and a set step of transferring the printing paste from the blanket, for example, to a substrate. This printing method allows any print pattern to be selected depending on the pattern of the grooves and also provides a high rate of transfer of the printing paste from the blanket to the substrate and thus allows a fine wiring pattern to be accurately formed.